Lisa Sharon Harper is executive director of New York Faith & Justice and the author of Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican … or Democrat
If the Republican Convention was American Idol and Palin’s speech was a rock ballad, Palin would be preparing for next week’s big sing-off right about now.
But this is NOT a reality TV show. This is reality; the future of our country, arguably the future of the world hangs in the balance.
With foreign and domestic crises abounding, we need an administration ready to lead in both foreign and domestic policy on day one as we head into the next eight years. As Rudy Giuliani said in his speech at the Republican Convention, “This is no time for on the job training.”
So, I ask: Why did McCain pick Sarah Palin as his running mate? Why would a 72 year-old man who harped on the inexperience of his opponent invite someone to the VEEP seat who, when asked her opinion on the surge one year ago, replied, “I haven’t really focused much on the Iraq war.”?
The reality is that John McCain needs a collective action movement to win. According to William A. Gamson, author of Talking Politics, to galvanize a collective action movement, politicians must create collective action frames. Three things are required to create a collective action frame:
1) language, symbols, and themes that give rise to moral indignation concerning the issue at hand
2) identification of a clear human adversary
3) a clear way to act collectively to fight the unjust adversary.
And no one does collective action movements like the Religious Right.
When I was born-again back in 1983, I had two conversions. In the first, I renounced my sin and accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior. In the second, I renounced my family’s party of choice (no pun intended), the Democrats, and accepted Ronald Reagan and the Republican party as my personal political saviors. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t old enough to vote yet. I was convinced by friends that as a Christian I had to be a Republican. Reagan was running for his second term at the time. So, by default I had to be on his side.
The deal was sealed when I was handed a tract on my way out of church that declared “Mondale is the Anti-Christ.” It warned, if Mondale was elected president, all the little children would be rounded up in concentration camps! To fight the Anti-Christ we had to vote for Reagan! I was sold. I went home and lobbied my parents. I begged them to vote for Reagan. Mom was an original member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee’s Philadelphia office in the 1960s. She had none of it.
Palin, a daughter of the Religious Right, resurrected its collective action frames in her use of language and symbols, her identification of a clear human adversary, and her clear call for collective action in her September 3 speech.
Notice her repeated references to “the media” and “the elite”; recurring villains of the Right. Notice her use of “the troops” and John McCain’s war hero status to set up the veneer of justice for her cause. Notice the way Palin framed Obama as the enemy of the “small town” heroes that make our country work and fight our wars and grow our food. “We tend to prefer candidates,” she said, “who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.”
Brilliant. She went “back to the basics” like McCain promised his campaign would; “big government”… “take your money” … “weaken America” … “taxes.”
Then, in the last minute of her ballad she gave a clear way every listener could take collective action to defeat the enemy: “I ask you to join our cause. Join our cause and help America elect a great man as the next president of the United States.”
And, with that, the eyes of the Right glazed over with glee and Palin became America’s Idol.
And about a week ago, I heard a rumor spreading quickly through the Right: “Did you know Obama is the Anti-Christ?”
Lisa Sharon Harper is executive director of New York Faith & Justice and the author of Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican … or Democrat, out next month from The New Press.
posted September 18, 2008 at 11:35 am
I’m sorry, but I’m much more cynical than you, and I see this VP pick as a last ditch effort from a dying administration to keep power. From her naivete, her simple-mindedness, her lack of experience, her questionable background, her spotted past, her proclivity to lie and to slander her opponents, and her fundamentalist religious faith that is way more extreme than the majority of Americans are comfortable with, we can view this pick as nothing more than a diversion tactic by McCain that works on a number of different levels. First, she’s pretty and young, which unfortunately will get her a positive response and a great many votes from the dumbed-down masses of this land. Next, she is in-your-face religious, which will bring back into the fold many of the religious right who bailed when Huckabee bowed out. Third, she’s female, so the Republicans can try to say that they are being progressive now, as they attempt to shift focus from what’s underneath the mask to the mask itself. Finally, she’s a “regular person,” which for some is refreshing and down-to-earth in a time when it is common to bash politicians as elitists and out of touch.
But ultimately, this is a diversion tactic to take the focus off of an ugly (and I don’t mean physically) candidate who is virtually unelectable, and give the appearance of something fresh and new. Only in America would you see such a base and despicable tactic actually working.
As the country goes swirling down the toilet, and our future is more uncertain than ever as a direct result of inept Republican leadership, these grasping neocons will do anything to keep power – proving again that it is power and influence that they love more than the country itself.
posted September 18, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Well said, Warren.
posted September 18, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Ms. Harper’s comments were headlined: “Palin: The Religious Right’s American Idol.”
A more appropriate one would be: “Palin: The Left’s Latest Obsession.” I have not seen more venom from the left directed towards a non-white male since the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.
Why were you all threatened by Clarence Thomas back then … and why are you all threatened today by the rise of Sarah Palin? Why the venom, the lies, the smears?
posted September 18, 2008 at 3:20 pm
“Why were you all threatened by Clarence Thomas back then … and why are you all threatened today by the rise of Sarah Palin? Why the venom, the lies, the smears?”
You should ask Palin about “venom, lies and smears” – that’s her speciality.
I don’t presume to speak for progressives, but for myself I can definitely say the following:
1. Sarah Palin doesn’t threaten me in the way you suggest. I am merely appalled that someone as untalented and simple-minded as she has given every evidence to be is to be considered for the country’s second-highest post. I mean, haven’t we had enough of that kind of leadership with the Bush era?
2. Palin seems to be the very worst kind of conservative Christian. By that I mean she uses her religion as a weapon in political battles, and as a rhetorical tool to manipulate weak-minded religious sheep. She claims to allow her faith to guide her, but from every indication this is only a superficial lip-service at best. At worst it is an insidious form of hypocrisy.
3. Finally, I know I yearn for a person of color or a woman in the White House, but not just anyone. How about someone intelligent, qualified, discerning, wise, and fair-minded? Again, from everything I’ve seen from her, Sarah Palin is not that person.
posted September 18, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Warren Cheswick: “I am merely appalled that someone as untalented and simple-minded as she has given every evidence to be is to be considered for the country’s second-highest post.”
And you think Obama has the experience and the integrity to be considered for the country’s highest post?
Warren, the rest of your post — with its incendiary language and sharp invective directed at Governor Palin — only proves my point about the anger we see on the left.
Again, my question: “Why the venom, the lies, the smears?”
In the meantime, I will pray for you.
posted September 18, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Reaganite:
Look, let me explain it this way. Sarah Palin constantly says stupid things, shows little wisdom or intellect, has little understanding of her new position or of global politics in general. Just listen to her talk. She actually said yesterday that the financial markets “need shakin’ up and fixin’.” We already had 8 years of moronic leadership – is it too much to ask for our leaders to show a bit of learning and sophistication? In her talk to one group yesterday she first said that corporate greed was to blame for the market crash, and that she and McCain would work to reform the system by standing up to these companies. Then, in her next breath, she said she would do so by “getting out of the way” of big business. Huh? It’s embarrassing. Again, I’m not trying to speak for all progressives – just me. But if I’m livid, it’s not anything personal against this woman. I simply don’t understand how she can possibly be considered a strong VP for a 70+ year old presidential candidate. It’s insulting to the American people.
And Obama might not have the experience of Joe Biden, but he has been a Senator for some time, and he surely understands Washington. And he’s quite intelligent. And he isn’t a Republican. The Republicans have run our country into the ground, and shown themselves to be inept, foolish, corrupt, and selfish. It’s time to give the Democrats a chance to see if they can bring a little dignity back to US politics.
posted September 18, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Uh Oh! The liberals are already on their last ditch argument of ‘repubs are stupid dems are smart’ and there are six weeks before the election.
posted September 18, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I’ve read plenty of e-mails and blogs about Sarah Palin in the past week, several of them truly scared me as they revealed her fundamentalist beliefs in Armageddon and the end times. It occurred to me that these radical, pro-death, fundamentalists have avidly and eagerly awaited these times and now they are finally just a heart beat away from bringing it about. The last and main sign that they’ve been waiting for is the Anti Christ and it looks like Obama is shaping up to be just that for them,
Well here’s the real sign- Sarah presents herself as representing all god fearing women but she is the the antithesis of everything intelligent women have ever been or wanted to be. I believe that if this warmongering idiot of a woman ever becomes the Vice President and then, Goddess forbid, President, we might as well bend over and kiss our species and all the others goodbye because thanks to her the end of the world, as we know it, will truly be upon us.
posted September 18, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Mac:
Why is it wrong to demand that our civic leaders be intelligent, competent, discerning, and experienced? Furthermore, this has nothing to do with Republicans in general – my remarks only pertain to Gov. Palin. As I’ve said before on these boards, although I’m not a Republican, I’d have quite a lot of faith in and respect for say, Condy Rice. If McCain had picked Rice, I wouldn’t have written any of my various comments today. I keep going back to the question, “What is best for our country?” And in my opinion, Sarah Palin as VP for an aged Prez who has already battled melanoma, is most definitely not what’s best for this country at this particular moment in history.
posted September 18, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Warren Cheswick,
If you are so concerned about Sarah Palin’s credentials, can we assume that you have the same anxiety about Barack Obama’s?
After all, what has B.O. accomplished as a member of the US Senate? What foreign policy accomplishments does he have on his resume? What policy accomplishments of any kind, for that matter, can he boast and how do they compare with Palin’s? And, while we’re at it, name me three things Blowhard Biden has accomplished in his 36 years as a member of the US Senate?
posted September 18, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Sigh. I can’t help it that Palin is not very intelligent (she thinks that being in the proximity of Russia gives her foreign policy credentials), and you trying to turn the focus on Obama doesn’t change the fact that Palin has shown herself to be naive, simple-minded, and embarrassing. Obama in every address he gives (without a teleprompter, and often with speeches that he actually wrote himself) shows a profound understanding of people and a sharp intelligence. Sarah Palin can only fall back on the “Oh, I’m just a good ol’ hockey mom!” shtick – it’s pathetic. Palin is just a dodge to get the focus off McCain, the doddering, senile warmonger who has no answers for the hole Bush has dug us into. Republicanism has caused the mess we are in, plain and simple. They aren’t going to be able to get us out of it.
posted September 19, 2008 at 12:53 am
Warren Cheswick,
Sorry to draw you away from your Palin obsession, but you didn’t get around to answering my central question involving the Democratic party nominee for President: what has he ever accomplished?
Ironic that it was Palin who noted earlier this month that Obama, who has never written any significant legislation nor run an organization of any significance, HAS managed to write two autobiographies. Obama is the ultimate Seinfeldian candidate: he’s all about nothing.
posted September 19, 2008 at 2:17 am
Jeez, Reaganite. You moan about smears against Palin, who has shown herself to be a proven liar, just like McCain who has changed his position on abortion to make his candidacy more palatable to right wingers, and yet you openly smear Obama with lies about his legislative record. It’s not a secret what Obama’s accomplished. Since you don’t seem to want to do the work yourself, I’ll provide a nice link for you from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/03/AR2008010303303.html
In this interchange you are only reinforcing what everyone knows about right wingers. You try to obfuscate the truth about your own party by lying and stirring up a cloud of dust about the Democrats, when you don’t have a leg to stand on. Rovian tactics all the way, brother. Hasn’t America had enough of Republican turd?
I’m sorry your candidate’s VP selection is a dingbat and a liar and has a closet full of scandalous skeletons, but trying to turn the focus on Obama isn’t going to make all that go away.